What is Metabolic Syndrome?

Hardly a day goes by without another headline reminding us how common our modern metabolic diseases have become.

Obesity, heart disease and type 2 diabetes are all products of our modern diet and sedentary lifestyles.

A cluster of risk factors - blood pressure, blood glucose levels and insulin resistance, triglyceride and HDL cholesterol levels, as well as waist circumference, which often occur together, are termed ‘metabolic syndrome’.

They predispose us to type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

It’s well known our modern diet which is packed with convenience foods containing lots of sugar, carbs and processed fat is linked to both inflammation and insulin resistance, a precursor to type 2 diabetes.

Why not, then, return to the diet our ancestors ate?

After all, they did not suffer from these modern diseases.

In this article we’ll have a look at the evidence supporting the paleo approach to eating, and whether it is right for everyone.

What are the Benefits of the Paleo Diet?

Without counting calories, adopting a paleo eating plan tends to lead to weight loss.

This is because the high fibre, unprocessed, low carbohydrate foods eaten are much less calorie dense than a typical modern diet.

Insulin Resistance

Insulin resistance is believed to contribute to metabolic syndrome.

The paleo diet has virtually no fast-releasing carbohydrates and can improve insulin sensitivity.

A scientist called James Neel way back in 1962, suggested insulin resistance – the reluctance of our cells to listen to insulin and therefore take on board sugar to use as energy – may have evolved as an adaptation to low levels of carbohydrates eaten by our ancestors in times of famine.

Known as the ‘thrifty gene’ hypothesis, (2) Neel suggested that when food was plentiful and our ancestors put on weight, they became more insulin resistant.

This helped them survive lean times by reducing sugar uptake by cells, leaving it for brain fuel.

The agricultural revolution made carbohydrate-rich and calorie-rich crops plentiful and they became staple foods.

Recently, modern food processing has made huge quantities of simple carbohydrates available.

Although genetically we do adapt to changes in diet, many of us may still carry gene variants that tend us towards thriftiness and insulin resistance, and therefore susceptible to diabetes and obesity. In these people, eating lots of processed carbohydrates can lead to blood sugar problems and metabolic disease.

Although the thrifty gene hypothesis may not completely explain this complicated situation, it’s an interesting concept.

However, other researchers have commented that confounding factors may be at work, such as way the meat is cooked and how many fresh vegetables are eaten in the remainder of the diet.

The omission of grains has also come under fire.

Research now suggests wild grains may have been eaten by hunter gatherers 30,000 years ago, well before farming was introduced.

In any case, there was never a single Palaeolithic diet.

Food choices varied with geography and climate.

Our ancestors had very different type of stress in their lives, and industrial pollutants were absent, so really we are not comparing like with like.

While the science is encouraging for the beneficial effects of the paleo diet, it could be argued that life expectancy for foraging populations was short – it’s estimated to have been only around 40 years.